His meals were delivered through a slot while his monthly phone calls were limited to two. Silverstein was placed in solitary confinement with a permanently turned-on light in the ceiling that allowed for uninterrupted video surveillance. At this point, officials began designing the federal supermax prison as a direct result of Silverstein’s killings. Clutts to death for allegedly bullying him and destroying his artwork. Using a homemade key to unlock his cuffs, he stabbed corrections officer Merle E. Thomas Silverstein Thomas Silverstein took up art while imprisoned. With two new life sentences to his name, Silverstein killed again on October 22, 1983. While Smith planned to avenge Chappelle, Silverstein and Fountain acted first, stabbing him 67 times and killing him. The gang’s leader Raymond “Cadillac” Smith was soon transferred to Marion during Silverstein’s trial. By that point, however, Silverstein and another inmate, Clayton Fountain, had already murdered Robert Chappelle of the D.C. His conviction was overturned in 1985 when reports surfaced that prosecutorial witnesses had perjured themselves.

Sentenced to life, Silverstein was transferred to the U.S. He did their ghastly bidding, which included murdering inmate Danny Atwell for refusing to serve as their drug mule and bring heroin inside. HistoryĪt Leavenworth, Silverstein joined the Aryan Brotherhood gang for protection. “Silverstein’s actions were responsible for ushering in a new era in modern-day corrections,” he wrote. Peter Earley, author of The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth, said the state’s response to Silverstein’s deeds would directly spur the proliferation of supermax prisons and the practice of solitary confinement. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1977. The 19-year-old was sent to San Quentin Prison only to be re-arrested while on parole in 1975 - for two more armed robberies that yielded $11,000. Upon release, Silverstein began using heroin.Ĭommitting armed robberies to finance his habit, Silverstein was arrested alongside his cousin and Thomas Conway in 1971. “I hated authority, just like I hated bullies,” he said. While he was sentenced to the California Youth Authority reform school, he recalled learning nothing but violently standing his ground. Thomas Silverstein was 14 when he stole a car and assaulted a cop. Enraged, Conway drove over there and threw bricks through the window - teaching her son that two wrongs made a right.

“I smacked him in the face as hard as I could.”Ĭonway had unwittingly unleashed a cycle of violence that would never cease, as Gary’s father spotted Silverstein the next day and dragged him to his house for Gary to respond in kind. “I took one look at my mom and her black belt and I took one look at Gary, and there wasn’t any choice at all,” recalled Silverstein. Spotting a bully named Gary walking home from school, Silverstein’s mother dragged him to her backyard and forced her son to beat him. Young Tommy Silverstein was routinely bullied in his working-class neighborhood as he was mistaken for being Jewish.

While he was now legally a Silverstein, Thomas always thought of Conway as his dad. She filed for divorce a second time in 1956 to marry Sid Silverstein. When he was born on February 4, 1952, in Long Beach, California, Thomas Edward Conway’s mother Virginia had already divorced his father and married Thomas Conway. “It’s almost more humane to kill someone immediately than it is to intentionally bury a man alive,” he said. According to the ACLU and Silverstein himself, it was literal torture. Silverstein spent over three decades having no contact with other human beings. Wikimedia Commons Thomas Silverstein murdered four people while imprisoned.ĭesperate to curb incidents of violence, the Bureau of Prisons built a custom cell in the ADX “supermax” prison in Colorado.

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